Aloha 2010

Sitting at the computer, back at home in Vancouver, with the Olympic preparations literally at my doorstep, it does not seem possible that were on the Big Island for just two weeks and that it is now 2010! So much has been accomplished in such a short time, both simply enjoying the quiet beauty and the vibrancy of the Big Island and especially the remarkable people who call this home and those drawn to its amazing spiritual and recouperative properties as well as its absolutely authentic, majestic quiet beauty and the options for activities that thrill us and provide us with the rush of adreneline through sheer excitement.

I was able to share a remarkable visit back to Waipio Valley and my first time to the 14,000 foot summit of Mauna Kea with some of the most special people on earth. The views from the summit with the shock of temperature (no matter how well prepared you think you are) almost defy description. The colors and special prayers given there will always remain close in my heart.

Forgetting an offering, amazing entrepreneur and energy healer, Maxima, inadvertently offered her glasses, which really became a symbol for our project here on the island...opening our hearts to see instead of just using your eyes. Luna eventually lost his headset, which was subsequently found, run over. It brought further understanding that we must listen and pay attention to the still, small voice rather than the loud overlay that sometimes amplifies things that seem more pressing or important.

It was ironic that about twenty years earlier, we were some of the first people allowed to walk on the still warm,freshly erupted lavafields at the volcano. January 3, when we went to the Kalapana observation area, the lava flow had inexplicably stopped that very morning, with my husband carrying 35 pounds of camera equipment, and with me with my own collection of media paraphernalia left with the words of incredulity of the professional photographers at the inexplicable lack of any flow. We all shook our heads at the fickleness of Madame Pele, with whom I had a powerful encounter just a scant two months earlier. To add to the mystery, not understanding fully, several people instinctively new that "Madam Pele was done, and moving".
And move she did, when the day before we left, we were told that a small flow appeared about 11 miles from the visitor viewing area, too far out to be seen other than by helicopter or boat.

During our drive to Hilo and the volcano, we passed so many changes of topography, climate and terrain, it caused the altimeter on Sam's watch to look like a roller coaster. Driving past the volcano, we encountered even more sulfuric air than I had experienced my previous time at the volcano. Our friend, who had asthma when younger, was definitely affected, and many of the areas in Volcano National Park were closed to visitors due to health concerns. These two issues are very important to take into consideration when planning a visit to the park, especially if anyone in your group has any kind of breathing issues or is pregnant, or very young. We were eventually able to go to the caldera and to the Thurston Lava Tubes before we left, but did not get to hike, and explore or get the photographs we wanted.

While the waves prevented our end of the trip snorkeling on the Kona side, it instead provided us with great opportunities to watch the magnificent whales at play, spouting and diving offshore. It also gave us lots of great photos, albeit sans lava, but equally powerful memories to cherish. We had already swum respectfully close to spinning dolphins and sea turtles in the ocean sans a swim with the dolphins or other program...they just showed up, like we did.

To me, it was another clue about managing expectations. Experiences start and end in our hearts and heads, and even more so, how we interpret (or some others would say rationalize)them. Labels about good and bad, timeliness, and expected purpose are just external manifestations of our reactions to the events around us that we often have no control over. What we do control 100 percent is our ability to control our own personal reactions and actions around any news or specific events (like what is happening now in Haiti) and non events like a lack of a desired action or event on the part of others.

My time on the island also confirmed my profound belief that travel amplifies the ability of the right people showing up in your life at the right time, even though, at the time, we may not always appreciate or understand why without the perspective of time and insight. Like in Kosovo, when working on wonderful humanitarian story, a film project became possible, and with no preplanning, the right people just showed up, each person adding their own perspective and became a link in the chain towards telling a remarkable story. It was the same feeling standing in line at the airport in Albania, and meeting someone who would be instrumental in helping get Jared and my book on diabetes published around the world. Here in Hawaii, I was able to see real growth of self pride in local heritage and locally based solutions, especially in the field of wellness, and the Hawaiian values of Ho'oponopono, similar in many ways to the Albanian concept of Besa-"keeping the promise". I sometimes shake my head at the far flung destinations that my passions carry me, while marveling at the unlikely similarities of cultures.

In Hawaiian, Ho'oponopono means "to make right". Essentially, it means to make it right with those who came before you (our positive inherited values), or to make right with the people with whom you have relationships (ideally everyone in the world). They call this the Hawaiian Code of Forgiveness, and it's a very important concept, because when we forgive others, we are also forgiving ourselves.

Simply put the process of Ho'oponopono involves the following steps:

1.Bring to mind anyone with whom you do not feel total alignment or support, etc.
2.In your mind's eye, construct a small stage below you
3.Imagine an infinite source of love and healing flowing from a source above the top of your head (from your Higher Self), and open up the top of your head, and let the source of love and healing flow down inside your body, fill up the body, and overflow out your heart to heal up the person on the stage. Be sure it is all right for you to heal the person and that they accept the healing.
4.When the healing is complete, have a discussion with the person and forgive them, and have them forgive you.
5.Next, let go of the person, and see them floating away. As they do, cut the aka cord that connects the two of you (if appropriate). If you are healing in a current primary relationship, then assimilate the person inside you.
6.Do this with every person in your life with whom you are incomplete, or not aligned.
The final test is, can you see the person or think of them without feeling any negative emotions. If you do feel negative emotions when you do, then do the process again.

I believe this process can be practiced daily by saying these few simple, but powerful words... I love you, I forgive you, Thank You. These words are the basis for self esteem, forgiveness and ultimately the core values we need to thrive and not just survive in this world-LOVE and GRATITUDE.

I guess than brings me back to the theme that I believe is continuing and amplifying for 2010. Through travel, we open ourselves us to a universe of new people and experiences. We must know from a core level that we are able to make a significant and positive difference in the world-pretty much every day. Once we understand that we are all inextricably linked together, and that we each hold a different key to the mystery of life-and quality of life, which every single person born onto this earth deserves, we can indeed serve as a rainbow bridge in 2010 and beyond.

I hope you will also share your thoughts and feelings, as well as the experiences that travel has brought to your perspective and committment to be part of the solution. May we all find inside ourselves, our Places of Refuge where we can be unconditionally sheltered and turn our hearts and lives into the same for others.

Make 2010 a time when you are consciously adding years to your life and life to your years.

I owe you all am almost ashamed apology for having such a long and unintentional lapse in my blog, although I have been more active with twitter and I am a new and still reluctant facebook (especvially given the new privacy changes last week).

I did work on an entry in for this month's trazzler contest on Islands. If you are reading this before December 23, I hope that you will please support me and "wishlist" my story before December 23, you only can do it once each contest.Here is link http://www.trazzler.com/trips/halema-uma-u-crater-kilauea-volcano-national-park-hawaii-hi-in-volcano-hi# Mahalo

I will be returning to the Big Island this week to spend more time with some of the island's special healers and kahuna, and Madam Pele, who have left a lasting impression on my heart and soul. It is this additional dimension, in addition to the genuine beauty and diversity of the Island, that makes it even more enchanting. I look forward to seeing even what I saw recently through a second pair of eyes. The Hawaiian Islands have always represented some of my families happiest and earliest travel experiences. Even though we are travelling without our children, the images are as fresh as footprints in the wet sand.

I hope that you, too, will be interested in learning more about the special experiences that you too can have on the Big Island.


In the meantime, as I am planning another trip to Kosova for a conference I was invited to participate in on Albanians and the Jews, particularly during WWII. I was thrilled to see that the America Society for Travel Agents (ASTA) has made Pristina Kosova, the site for their annual conference this fall. With the Besa exhibit coming to SFU Teck Gallery from June 27-Oct 17th and with lectures and other programming during that time, as well as the anticipated release in 2010 of the movie, God's House, and possible award for best Jewish Fine Arts Book in the US, plus work on another story I have found so compelling during the recent war in Kosova, I was very interested to find the following article on EU removing need for visas for many countries, but not Albania or Kosovoa.


By Jovana Gec, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, cp.org, Updated: December 18, 2009 6:32 PMSerbia, Montenegro, Macedonia celebrate lifting of EU travel visas after 20 years
Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia on Friday were celebrating the lifting of travel restrictions to EU countries, marking a symbolic end to an era of isolation and instability in the troubled region.

Concerts, all-night parties and fireworks were held to hail the EU decision to open its borders to more than 10 million people from the western Balkans. The new rights take effect at midnight.

"The visa abolishment has restored the rights that other citizens of the European Union enjoy, the freedom of movement and the feeling that we belong to the European family," interior ministers of the three countries said in a joint statement.

The change is a major boost for the region, which has sought to move closer to the European Union after years of ethnic wars in the 1990s. Travel restrictions will remain in place for Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania, but will be reviewed next year.

The visa-free policy applies to the so-called Schengen zone of unfettered travel, which covers 25 EU member states, as well as three non-EU members - Iceland, Norway and Switzerland - but does not include Britain and Ireland.

The citizens of the former Yugoslavia had enjoyed free travel in the past, but visa requirements were introduced as the federation was breaking up in 1991 in a series of conflicts that lasted until 1999.

Visa regime forced the residents to wait in long lines before EU nations' embassies for nearly 20 years.

"I have been humiliated for too long," said 39-year-old Macedonian journalist Emil Gasevski. "I hope we are no longer second class citizens of Europe."

In Belgrade, 41-year-old Bobana Vojinovic said the news of was great "even though we don't have money to travel."

"We are finally out of the cage," she said.

Travel agents in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro all have reported a surge in bookings for New Year's holidays after EU ministers announced the change earlier this month.

Serbian government officials boarded buses and planes late Friday to lead the first groups of citizens over the borders to EU nations. Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic took 50 Serbs - who have never travelled to an EU country - on a midnight flight to the EU seat, Brussels. Meanwhile, the state TV broadcast live a concert from the Belgrade City Hall.

In the Macedonian capital of Skopje, celebrations were organized at a central square despite freezing weather. Mayor Koce Trajanovski said bars and restaurants will be open all night "so people can celebrate properly."

Montenegrin authorities are flying 100 citizens to Rome, while 100 lottery-picked Macedonians will travel for free to Paris.

Goran Novakovic, 39-year-old painter from Montenegro says he has not been to an EU country since 1980s'.

"I am very excited," he said.

-

Associated Press Writer Konstantin Testorides contributed to this report from Skopje, Macedonia.